The Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved plans for a “sobering center” on Skid Row, an attempt to divert homeless alcoholics away from jail and emergency rooms and toward treatment.

Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas and Hilda Solis, who recommended opening the center, said many homeless individuals with chronic alcoholism bounce back and forth between Skid Row and County-USC Medical Center’s emergency room up to 50 times a year.

Those who pose a danger to themselves or others are arrested. Others found unconscious or staggering in the street following a 911 call are taken to the hospital by firefighters and paramedics.

Paramedics end up waiting up to six hours to get the patients admitted into the overcrowded emergency room, something they call “wall time,” according to the supervisors’ motion.

The scenario plays out hundreds of times a month, with no meaningful intervention for the patients, Ridley-Thomas said.

“This is a smart approach designed to save taxpayer dollars, improve the downtown area, free up scarce emergency resources and help the homeless heal,” Ridley-Thomas said.

The sobering center will move into a complex of modular buildings at 640/646 Maple Ave. recently vacated by the Department of Mental Health.

The 9,500-square-foot facility is expected to be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and require $2 million in one-time funding and $3.4 million in annual operating costs. If it achieves 60 percent of the goal of handling 8,000 visits annually, it will save the county $9.6 million each year, according to the motion.

The idea is that severely intoxicated homeless individuals would stay an average of eight to 23 hours in the center. Once sober, staffers would help link them to substance abuse treatment, housing and other support services aimed at breaking the cycle of dependency.

“With county-employed health professionals and service providers on site, it is my hope we can reduce the number of individuals on the street and connect them with the resources they need to make positive changes,” Solis said.

The supervisors cited support from the business community.

“This is a compassionate and cost-effective solution,” said Carol Schatz, president and CEO of the Central City Association, a business advocacy organization. “This is one small, but very important step to help the county’s homeless population and provide a clear path for recovery.”

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority is seeking 6,000 volunteers to assist with the 2015 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, which will be held Jan. 27-29.

Volunteers will be dispatched from 87 regional deployment centers to targeted census tracts throughout Los Angeles County to record the number of homeless people, vehicles used as homes and homeless encampments observed.

Volunteers will select their preferred deployment center when they register at TheyCountWillYou.org.

The count will be conducted in the San Gabriel Valley and Eastern Los Angeles County from 8 p.m.-midnight on Jan. 27; in West Los Angeles and the South Bay from 8 p.m.-midnight on Jan. 28; in the Antelope Valley from 6-10 a.m. on Jan. 29; and the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita Valley, metropolitan Los Angeles and South Los Angeles from 8 p.m.-midnight on Jan. 29.

The count will follow definitions of homelessness established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which include people living in places not meant for human habitation such as cars, parks, sidewalks and abandoned buildings.

A simultaneous count by service provider staff will enumerate homeless individuals and family members staying in emergency shelters and other homeless programs.

In conjunction with the three-night street and shelter count, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority will perform a detailed demographic survey to collect information critical in planning and assigning resources for homeless programs and services, it says.

“The 2015 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count is a critical opportunity to gain information about the size and scope of the challenge we face to house community residents experiencing homelessness,” said Executive Director Peter Lynn.

“We use this information to better target our homeless service resources. Volunteers will make a difference in their community, and the lives of their homeless neighbors, by committing four hours of their time.”

The homeless count is conducted every two years. The 2013 count found more than 39,000 homeless men, women and children.

Additional information is available by emailing HomelessCount@lahsa.org.